2017年7月24日 星期一

Robert Graves: "Good-Bye to All That: An Autobiography" (1929), The White Goddess, The Greek Myths

  Robert von Ranke Graves, also known as Robert Ranke Graves and most commonly Robert Graves, was an English poet, novelist, critic and classicist. Wikipedia

DiedDecember 7, 1985, Deià, Spain
SpouseBeryl Graves (m. 1950–1985), Nancy Nicholson (m. 1918–1949)

There's no money in poetry, but then there's no poetry in money, either.
The remarkable thing about Shakespeare is that he really is very good, in spite of all the people who say he is very good.
If I were a girl, I'd despair. The supply of good women far exceeds that of the men who deserve them.
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Poet and novelist #RobertGraves was born #onthisday 1895. A major war poet, he developed a close friendship with #SiegfriedSassoon, saving Sassoon from court martial after he had publicly condemned the conduct of the war. Sassoon was sent to military hospital instead and there met #WilfredOwen.
After the war Graves and Sassoon both joined The London Library - Graves went on to write several further volumes of poetry, historical novels (including "I, Claudius") and his celebrated autobiography recording his wartime experiences - "Goodbye to All That".


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"Patriotism, in the trenches, was too remote a sentiment, and at once rejected as fit only for civilians, or prisoners. A new arrival who talked patriotism would soon be told to cut it out."
--from "Good-Bye to All That: An Autobiography" (1929) by Robert Graves
In this autobiography, first published in 1929, poet Robert Graves traces the monumental and universal loss of innocence that occurred as a result of the First World War. Written after the war and as he was leaving his birthplace, he thought, forever, Good-Bye to All That bids farewell not only to England and his English family and friends, but also to a way of life. Tracing his upbringing from his solidly middle-class Victorian childhood through his entry into the war at age twenty-one as a patriotic captain in the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, this dramatic, poignant, often wry autobiography goes on to depict the horrors and disillusionment of the Great War, from life in the trenches and the loss of dear friends, to the stupidity of government bureaucracy and the absurdity of English class stratification. Paul Fussell has hailed it as ""the best memoir of the First World War"" and has written the introduction to this new edition that marks the eightieth anniversary of the end of the war. An enormous success when it was first issued, it continues to find new readers in the thousands each year and has earned its designation as a true classic.
 Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars: An Illustrated Edition (1979; Trans, Robert Graves, 1957)

 In Greek mythology, Orthrus (also called Orthros, Orthos, Orthus, Orth and Orphus) was a two-headed dog and a doublet of Cerberus, both whelped by the chthonic monster Echidna by Typhon. "Orthus has a phallic name that means 'Upright-erect' and is a herm-like figure; and as for his two heads, presumably one looked backward."[1]
Graves, Robert, 1960. The Greek Myths, ch. 34. Graves makes highly speculative connection of these creatures with the calendar

  When shooting on assignment he tended to retain the best images for himself: the portrait of Robert Graves that appeared in a 1941 issue of Picture Post shows a young man focused on his work; the one from the same session that Brandt held back shows the poet looking more mature, a quill pen clasped between his teeth and a slightly mad, oracular gleam in his eye.

 

 

 

2010年4月23日星期五


grammar, The White Goddess

The White Goddess: a Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth is a book-length essay upon the nature of poetic myth-making by author and poet Robert Graves. First published in 1948, based on earlier articles published in Wales, corrected, revised and enlarged editions appeared in 1948, 1952 and 1961. The White Goddess represents an approach to the study of mythology from a decidedly creative and idiosyncratic perspective. Graves proposes the existence of a European deity, the "White Goddess of Birth, Love and Death," inspired and represented by the phases of the moon, who lies behind the faces of the diverse goddesses of various European mythologies.
Graves argues that "true" or "pure" poetry is inextricably linked with the ancient cult-ritual of his proposed White Goddess and of her son. His conclusions come from his own conjectures about how early religions developed, as there is no historical evidence that the "White Goddess" as he describes her ever figured in any actual belief system.

The White Goddess
White goddess.JPG
The White Goddess cover (Farrar Straus Giroux, 1997).
Author Robert Graves
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Genre(s) Mythology, Poetry
Publication date 1948



主要作者 Graves, Robert, 1895-
書名/作者 The White Goddess : a historical grammar of poetic myth / by Robert Graves
出版項 New York : Vintage Books, 1958. (3rd printing, March 1960)


總圖2F人社資料區 PN1031 G7z 1958

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